A Tale of Two Masters
by T1meslayer
Summary: Grimsley and Shauntal meet on an unusual battlefield in Unova to see, once and for all, who is the greatest member of their Region's Elite Four. A one-off based on a recent conversation with a good friend. Rated 'T' for some suggestive language.


Few trainers could count themselves among the most prestigious and renowned institutions in the Pokémon world: The Elite Four.

If Pokémon Leagues were the modern-day equivalents of royalty, members of each Region's Elite Four were the bastions of peace that kept order while their Kings and Queens were away. Having the insatiable itch to travel and meet potential challengers to the throne was like a job requirement for Champions. Steven Stone in Hoenn, Cynthia in Sinnoh, Diantha in Kalos. They and many others had exhibited the same tendencies independent of one another.

It was in their blood.

Conversely, Elite Four members were bred protectors. They took pride in their immediate stations and trained relentlessly to keep them, thus prolonging their chances to meet more and more powerful challengers curated by their Champions.

They were universally respected for their battle prowess and community service.

But that meant they were never safe from the prying eyes of eager trainers looking to prove their mettle, no matter the environment.

The life of an Elite Four trainer was fraught with tension. They treated even the simplest tasks with the gravity of a life-or-death battle.

That was the kind of energy Grimsley exuded as he stared down his associate Shauntal in a tucked away section of the Nimbasa City theme park.

A bustling crowd of screaming children and love-struck couples were none the wiser as they ran past the pair of powerful trainers; invisible to all but the blank, plastic eyes of a massive blow-up Pikachu doll in the middle distance. The summer air was alive with the distant buzz of neon rollercoasters, the cooling spray of water from fountains planted around the park, and the curious scent of flowerbeds and sugary confections mixing in an unbridled harmony.

It was a backdrop that perfectly contrasted the intensity in Grimsley's sharp turquoise eyes, framed perfectly by the gelled wings of navy blue hair flaring out from the sides of his head and the gingerly folded fingers covering his pursed lips.

He sat on a diamond-backed stone chair, leaning forward just enough that his elbows could prop against the table between him and Shauntal, which itself was shaped like a goblet and made from the same light grey stone. Beyond the occasional bounce of his left leg as it crossed over his right, Grimsley kept as still as possible.

"Well?" He carefully enunciates the first word in a long hiss, muffled by his hands. "I'm waiting, Shauntie."

The woman sitting across the table was a little more formal, even under the intense gaze of her colleague. Her eyes had disappeared behind the shade of her lavender bangs and the glare of light across her round-eyed spectacles as she glanced down toward the table. Underneath it, her dark purple gloves were folded in the skirt over her lap.

She lets out a slight hum in response to Grimsley's prodding. This let the dark, poufy scarf around her neck raise and fall with each breath as though it really were the cat's puss that it emulated.

Her right hand gracefully rises into the air and holds steady, as she seems to take one moment more to think over her actions.

Then her gloved digits swoop down to snatch up a tiny, white marble effigy of a Pawniard with its bladed hands at its sides. She plants it two spaces ahead of the row of identical Pawniard where it had started. That left an empty space three columns in from the leftmost side of a checkered board built into the tabletop.

As soon as that Pawniard was moved, she rests her hand in her lap again and looks up, smiling warmly.

"Okay, your move!" She chimes in a singsong tone.

Grimsley starts to tap all of his fingers on the table, just outside of the board. That revealed the sly smirk he was hiding.

A light sigh escapes.

"The first move of the game. It's always the most interesting, wouldn't you say?" Grimsley says. "There are a myriad of possibilities, and you never know where any of them will lead in just a few turns."

He brings up his right hand to brush the hanging end of his yellow scarf away, as it obscured part of his navy blue two-piece suit.

"Truly one of the biggest gambles one can imagine."

Shauntal giggles in response.

"Only you could wax so poetically over chess, Grimsley."

"Says the woman who could sell a hundred novels about her bowel movements," he teases back.

After his scarf was cleared aside, he brings that free hand over the board and wiggles his fingers as they pass over each row of his black marble pieces.

First it passes left-to-right over a line of Pawniard. Then it moves back and passes right-to-left over a variety of pieces: A Bronzong with its arms curled inward to create a bell with handles; a Rapidash rearing back on its hind legs mid-whinny; a Bisharp with its right arm raised high; a shifty-looking Salazzle with a tiara; a standing Slaking of an imposing height adjusting the crown on its head; then another Bisharp, Rapidash and Bronzong flipped horizontally from their counterparts.

The layout was mirrored on Shauntal's side of the board, and every piece was slightly worn down with tiny cracks and chips showing the unpainted stone underneath.

He settles on the Pawniard at D7, moving it up to D5 — immediately diagonal from Shauntal's.

She quickly moves to take his exposed piece. Her Pawniard playfully kicks over the opposing Pawniard.

"Well at least my hobby is easier to discuss in polite company."

Grimsley scoffs at her accusation and moves his freed Bisharp across the board. C8 to F5.

"There's nothing wrong with a little gambling, Shauntie." He flashes her a smile.

"Oh?" She moves a Pawniard from D2 to D3, blocking the Bisharp's direct path to her Rapidash. "Well then why is it you're so insistent on hiding the fact that you turn tricks in the back alleys of Castelia, hm?"

Grimsley's expression falls into a scowl as he crosses his arms over the red lapels of his suit.

"There's no need to make it sound so undignified. I play with people's cards, not their hearts."

"Who said hearts have anything to do with it?" She giggles.

"Gah." He rolls his eyes and waves a hand dismissively. "You're only this insufferable when you're working on a romance novel."

"Better than being insufferable all the time." She teasingly pokes her tongue out.

"My! Caitlin would be so disappointed to hear you think that of her."

He moves his Salazzle out from the back line and takes her Pawniard at D5.

"Oh you leave Caitlin out of this you brute!" Shauntal giggles again as she moves her leftmost Rapidash to C3. "She's a lovely girl and will never receive any form of verbal lashing from this tongue."

Grimsley goes silent for a moment as he nods down at the board, thinking over how he would approach the newfound danger to his Salazzle.

"So long as she keeps inviting that tongue to her villa in Undella Town, I presume."

He moves his Salazzle back one space, landing it on D6.

Shauntal laughs as she brings both arms up so she can tug her left glove more snugly onto her arm.

"Not everything is about riches, Grimsley. Or fancy places to stay."

She moves her active Rapidash to E4, diagonally between her Pawniard and his Bisharp. Once again, his Salazzle was in danger.

"But you relish the opportunity all the same," he hisses through gritted teeth while assessing the situation on the board. "All those powerful trainers in one place… It's your wet dream."

The bespectacled trainer rests her chin in her hand so she can tap the philtrum between her nose and upper lip with her middle finger.

"I suppose you're not wrong. But it would behoove you not to spent too much time thinking over my wet dreams, Grimsley."

"Yes, I'm sure it's a ghastly subject."

He captures her Rapidash with his Bisharp.

"I certainly don't want it taking up too much of that head of yours when you should be focused on the game." Shauntal takes his Bisharp with her Pawniard in turn. "You're enough of a space case as is!"

"Oh that's rich coming from you."

He moves his leftmost Rapidash from G8 to F6, putting that Pawniard at risk.

"My mind is never spacious, Grimsley. If anything, there's too much going on in there!"

Pawniard from F2 to F3.

Grimsley leans in, squinting aggressively.

"That's precisely the problem, Shauntie."

When he leans back, he throws his arms out in a wide gesture while stamping his left foot back onto the grass. He'd have to clean the fine, leather shoe later.

"That said I'm surprised you chose this damned place for our game," he comments with a scoff. "I can hardly hear myself think between the carnival rides and screaming youngsters. Plus you've looked up at that Ferris wheel no less than five times since we began."

The girl's body tenses up and her cheeks dust red at the accusation.

"I have not! You have my undivided attention, Grimsley."

"Mmhm…" He rolls his eyes.

"It's true!"

"I'm sure it is, Shauntie. I have your undivided attention. As does the couple probably swapping spit in the top cabin of the wheel, I'm sure."

"Believe what you want Grimsley, but you're the one obsessing over my wet dreams and teenagers kissing on a Ferris wheel when you should be moving a piece."

He briefly scowls at that comment, but relents.

Pawniard from G7 to G5.

"There we go!" She teases in a patronizing tone of voice. "Was that so hard?"

"The only thing hard around here is your skull…" He grumbles.

Shauntal giggles in response and moves her Salazzle-side Bisharp to take the Pawniard he just moved.

Grimsley follows by moving his Slaking-side Bisharp diagonally next to hers at H6.

There's a bout of silence that follows as they get into the game.

Her Bisharp takes his at H6.

His Rapidash takes her Pawniard at E4.

Her Pawniard takes his Rapidash at E4.

His Salazzle takes her Bisharp at H6.

Her Salazzle moves diagonally to A4.

She pushes her glasses back up her nose with its red bridge, which makes the subtle purple shade in her eyes more apparent as they become magnified.

"Check."

He slowly nods in response and hums thoughtfully while stroking an invisible beard on his chin.

Then, Grimsley flicks both of his wrists so his hands would be further out of his suit's scarlet cuffs. He reaches both out to grab his Slaking, move it two squares to the left, and then leaps his Bronzong to the other side.

For a bit of extra flair, he turns his Bronzong piece just enough that it looked to be staring down her once-dangerous Salazzle.

"My castle is nigh impenetrable, Shauntie. You'll have to do better than that."

She leans back in her chair and lets out a gently 'ohh' into the folded, praying hands that rested over her mouth.

A moment of silence falls over the duo as she scans the board, which lets the ambient merriment of the theme park wash over them.

Suddenly, her eyes shoot open like dinner plates. She stands up so quickly that the chair she left behind teeters and threatens to fall over.

"Grimsley!" She cries in a somewhat strained, excited tone. "This is brilliant!"

Grimsley glances from side to side with a raised eyebrow, clearly confused. He leans away from her and flips his scarf back over his chest, as though it would offer him some modicum of protection should she grab a sharp-edged Bisharp piece and jam it into his heart in this seemingly random outburst.

"It's… Just castling, Shauntal." He mutters. "Frankly it's one of the more basic maneuvers in chess…"

"Nonono," she rebuts with words slurring together from how fast she was talking. "Not the game, the story!"

"Story?"

He somehow looked more concerned.

"Yes! The story!"

She runs around to the back of her chair and bends over so she can rummage through the purse previously abandoned behind it. Grimsley does the gentlemanly thing and avoids taking a look up her skirt as she carelessly wriggles her backside toward the oblivious crowd around them.

Soon enough she reemerges with a red notebook and matching fountain pen, kicking her left leg back in excitement and practically losing the (again, red) heel off her slippery purple stockings.

As soon as the notebook comes out, Grimsley's expression falls into a blend of resentment and despair.

It was all over.

"Really, Shauntie? Must you do this now?"

"Yes!" She squeals giddily while plopping back into her chair. The book is opened to a new page and she scribbles rapidly.

"Think about this. The scene? A war-torn battlefield some thousands of years ago."

"Just gag me already…" Grimsley rolls his eyes and pulls his left sleeve back enough to check the time on his red-and-black Xtransceiver.

Shauntal isn't remotely fazed by his cynicism.

"It's the time of the great war in Kalos. You can tell we're on the western coast by the great cliffs where Cyllage City now sits gleaming in the distance."

"Is this before or after that fairy tale 'super laser' is built?" Grimsley scoffs. "I really doubt that time period is as exciting as the stories would lead you to—"

His comment is steamrolled.

"Pokémon duke it out on the field. Blood flies through the air as a Bisharp cleaves open a cavalier's Rapidash, showing off for its platoon of Pawniard. Skarmory pass overhead in V-shaped formations to provide air support, blinding their opponents with sunlight reflected off the metallic wings they use as artillery. Ah… OCTILLERY climb up from the nearby seafront and launch goopy black projectiles as sneak attacks."

She goes mostly quiet for a moment to scratch something out and rewrite it. Grimsley can hear her complementing herself on the 'wonderful rhyme' under her breath.

"Isn't it just brilliant Grimsley?" She asks. "Knights fighting knights, pawns usurping kings… It's just screaming to be written!"

"I'm just screaming for you to take your turn already," he mumbles.

Obviously she doesn't do that.

"Oh but this is where it gets good. The commanding Slaking suddenly finds himself face-to-face with a slithering Salazzle. She has something to prove. Subjects to subjugate. He is the only thing standing in her way. But woe is our poor commander, stuck truant in place after crushing a puny Pawniard beneath his massive fist just moments before. Surely he will die, and the resistance will die alongside him!"

With a deep sigh, Grimsley pushes his hands against the table to stand up. He brushes off his suit to clear away any wrinkles and tightens the gold buttons holding the jacket piece together.

"If you're going to be at this for a while Shauntie, I'm just going to go. It's no fun for me once the game is over."

"Ahh, no!" She cries, nose buried in her writing as she frantically tries to put words to the page.

"This is the best part! Our Slaking's good friend, a lowly Bronzong who had been providing support from the sidelines, offers to stand guard between him and his slimy assailant. Even though he knows her corrosive poison burns through even the most hardened steel. He's offering to let himself die for his friend! Isn't that heartbreaking?!"

Grimsley shakes his head, but Shauntal is too distracted to notice. He idly brushes the thick spike of hair that hung between his eyes aside and turns toward the crowd.

"I'm going to go see if Nanu is available for a game. Have fun, Shauntie."

He walks away and disappears in the passing mass of bodies.

Shauntal is none the wiser; too busy mumbling to her notebook to register his absence.

Their game sat incomplete. Lost to time in that same overwhelming tension those Elite Four members faced at nearly every turn.

* * *

_**For just a bit of context, this one-off was inspired by a long conversation I had with a friend last week that started with, "Who would Grimsley play chess with?" Because obviously that Bisharp-loving man is very into chess.**_

_**The question took a long pit stop at deciding what chess pieces would look like in the Pokémon world, and eventually we settled on the answer that he would have played chess with Shauntal only once, because she got too distracted and never finished the game. Thus, this fanfiction was born.**_

_**Hope you all liked it! Let me know if there are any other smaller-scale stories you might be interested in reading.**_


End file.
